Everyone Lives
by DaughterofZeusRules
Summary: What will happen when the doctor dies? Will he be saved?


This is my first attempt at a doctor who fic (not including the insane doctor who/torchwood crossover birthday fic which is in the works!) Everything in_ Italics_ is a quote from the episode Forest of the dead.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of it, unfortunately. Though if anyone is wondering what to get me for Christmas…..

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><p><em>Everyone knows that everyone dies. And nobody knows it like the doctor. But I do think that all the skies in all the worlds might just turn dark, if he ever accepts it.<em>

_...  
><em>

The doctor clutched his side. The disease was spreading. Pretty soon he'd be dead. Again.

It was a pathetic way to go, after battling monsters, saving planets and changing time. Being beaten by microscopic particles was not the way he would have chosen to leave this body. He had survived for a long time in this one. He wondered who he'd be next. A spasm of pain shot through his side again. Not long now. But something was different. Something was wrong.

...

Jenny rushed into the main control room. The doctor was on the floor, clutching his side in agony. She raced over to him. "Come on dad," She whispered. "It'll be fine, you'll regenerate, and everything will be fine again." He gasped something. "What was that?"  
>"No... more… regenerations," he wheezed. "This … is … it."<p>

Jenny was horrified. "No dad, you can't leave me now, I only just found you again, please, no…"  
>He shook his head sadly. "It's too late."<br>"But I want to travel with you," tears were streaming down her face. "I can't lose you now."  
>"There's nothing to be done," his voice was getting weaker. "I'm glad you found me again, but I am nearly 2,000. My time is up."<br>She just sobbed.  
>"Jenny," he whispered with the last of his strength. "Please, do one last thing for me…"<p>

She bent her head down, and listened to his last request. His voice was trailing of, but he dragged himself to the TARDIS console. "You know where to go old girl," he told her. The TARDIS whirred sadly, as she took her thief on one last journey. "Goodbye," he told her. "Goodbye, you sexy thing." A hologram popped up of Idris, and she was crying. The doctor remembered the one time he had spoken with the TARDIS, and knew this was her way of saying goodbye. He sank to the floor as Jenny embraced him, and he travelled through time and space for one last time.

...

The TARDIS landed. The doors flung themselves open, and flooded the area with light. Jenny walked out, tears streaming down her cheeks. The doctor's body was lying on the floor behind her. in her hand was his last sonic screwdriver.

Walking forwards nervously, she glanced around. Everything was silent, and this scared her. She knew that the TARDIS was creating a bubble of light around her, but you could never be too careful with the Vashta Nerada. There was a panel in front of her, but she didn't know where to connect the screwdriver. The Doctor always did the technical stuff. But the Doctor wasn't around anymore. So she'd have to work it out by herself. In her hand, one of the five lights on the screwdriver blinked out.

Two minutes later, she still hadn't worked out how to connect it and time was running out. Three of the little bars had gone out and the fourth was flickering dangerously. Suddenly it went out. Jenny was searching desperately for the socket. The last bar was flickering, she was going to be too late, and it was hopeless…

The last bar was fading as she spotted the bizarrely shaped dent in the panel. It didn't look like it would take a sonic screwdriver, but by this point she was desperate. So she plunged it into the hole, just as the last bar flickered out.

For a moment nothing happened. Then the panel started glowing, brighter and brighter, and volts of blue electricity began shooting up the pylons beside her, the statue behind her began to speak, and it had his face, The Doctor's face, her dad's face, and she could hear his repeating over and over…

"The Doctor has left the library. The Doctor has been saved. The Doctor has left the library. The Doctor has been saved. The Doctor has left the library. The Doctor has been saved…"

"Bye dad," she whispered, before turning and walking back into the TARDIS, tears pouring down her face again.

...

Everything went dark. Then a bright white light surrounded him. It faded until he could see he was stood in a park. The sun was shining, the air was still. Everything was perfect.

A young girl walked towards him. The Doctor recognised her as Cal, the girl at the centre of the library.  
>"Hello doctor," she said. "You're safe. You'll always be safe here. You fixed the datacol. It's a good place now."<br>The doctor smiled at her. "Is River here? Is she safe?"

"Yes, I saved her. I saved her some friends too. Would you like to see them?"  
>The doctor could only nod. Cal led him through the garden, until he saw River, and all of her team who didn't make it sat on the grass, having a picnic. He walked over as if in a dream. They looked up as he approached. "Someone's here to see you River," Cal told her.<p>

River stood up, facing him. His breath caught. She had never looked so beautiful. But she didn't recognise him. Her face was twisted into a frown, "Do I know you?"  
>His heart twisted. That was painful. Of course she didn't recognise him, he was in a new body, and he'd had several new bodies since he'd last seen her. "River," he breathed. "River it's me."<p>

She looked quizzically at him. "Aren't you going to tell me who you are?"  
>"I can't do that," he smiled.<br>She scowled. "Why not?"

He walked forwards, until he was stood directly before her. He leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Spoilers."

She looked at him, really looked at him, and a radiant smile crossed her face. "Doctor?" He nodded. "You just can't do it, can you? You just can't give in?" She threw her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry I didn't recognise you, new bodies, it always confuses me."

That gave the doctor a thought. He raised his eyebrows at Cal, asking her what he didn't dare say out loud. She knew what he meant though.  
>"Yes," she told him. "It's possible. I saved all of your information, everything. Aren't I a clever girl?"<p>

"Brilliant, Cal." He was beaming. Locking eyes with River, he stepped away slightly, and focused. Focused on who he wanted to be. The eleventh version, he decided, would be the best. He was the one that River had fallen in love with, even if he did have a weird obsession with bowties and hats.

Gold sparks were gathering around him. They filled the air like hundreds of fireflies, glistening. Then suddenly they all zoomed into him. It was like being hit with a truck. He doubled over, wheezing, as his features morphed into a pattern they knew so well.

The old doctor looked back up at River, and she looked into those eyes she knew so well. And it was like coming home.

So they sat on the grass, in this perfect world, and talked about everything. There was no hurry, after all, they had forever together, in this perfect world they had created.

_Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not... today._

For today, everybody lives.

...

_Some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the doctor comes to call... everybody lives. _

_Sweet dreams, everyone._

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><p>Reviews will be much appreciated<p> 


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